Where Design Professionals find Inspiration

Tips on feeding creativity and finding new ways to meet challenges

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Creativity often requires both extroverted idea-exchange and introverted rumination

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask how creative people how they did something, they feel a
little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a
while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” – Steve
Jobs

As a long-standing foundry, our company has grown with innovation—our individual products, place in the
site-furnishings market, and operations have all evolved over the years. Some feel that the metal casting industry
is old and divorced from the world of invention, but our company’s development belies that. Each of our products
and processes began as a concept and went through creative brainstorming to get from idea to physical object.

Our bollard product lines are practical: they’re created to protect people and guide traffic. Yet that’s not all
they’re for. A concrete barrier can do a similar job, but in some places, it might also be a jarringly industrial
element that carries the hint of threat. As we design tools meant for safety, we also must envision the streetscape
they will create or influence, considering the context. We create for both function and form, and so the process is
not as simple as finding a need and answering it. Our bollards are
inspired by history, trends in architecture, or
the unique circumstances and aesthetics of a region or a client, as well as the vision of our individual designers.
For example, Sean Wan, our lead engineer and designer, says: “I find mathematics inspiring. Usually people don’t
realize how beautiful mathematics is, until they see it visualized.”

Many of those we work with, including specifiers, architects, planners, and designers, also spend their working
lives creating plans and designs they will then see through to construction or manufacture. They’re also often
carefully tending the balance between user experience, meaning, and needed performance. It’s no wonder that
managing these impulses can sometimes leave a creative professional feeling stuck or indecisive, hoping for an
illuminating strike of inspiration to bring things into perspective. Yet simply waiting for this moment doesn’t
always put a solution together. How can a designer nudge inspiration along?

We surveyed successful creative professionals to learn how, across many different fields, they encourage new ideas.
Several strategies shone through.

Inspiration from other works

“If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating
environments where their ideas can connect.” – Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural
History of Innovation

When we look at history to inspire our designs we are reaching back to designers and architects of other eras, whose
work still influences our buildings today. By understanding how our designs are rooted in historical movements, we
can adapt to new realities while honoring traditional approaches.

This cross-pollination is important. Art can inspire architecture, architecture inspire music: creative work
features blending and synthesis of things that have gone before to create something new.

“Our design firm works in the field of building acoustics. As such we design acoustic sensitive environments
directly with architects. While the architect works in the visual aesthetic and operational aspects of a
structure, we design the aural impression that a visitor or worker experiences. We take our inspiration
from
classic structures such as European cathedrals and performance spaces, as well as Greco-Roman theaters.”

“I'm an interior designer in New York and I work for a small firm designing offices, mostly for tech
startups
with a few residential projects here and there.

When looking for inspiration, I think it's important to really let it come from anywhere, while speaking to
the
client's brand, mission, and style. Locale can also play a big part!

For an engineering firm in a classic loft space in a port town, we derived a color palette from a series of
vintage postcards of New England towns, the mint green of classic drafting surfaces, and the navy blue from
their logo, and used modern furniture & lighting that had a vintage twist.

I think it's important when designing an office to not limit yourself solely to a client's brand identity,
but
to cast a wider net in order to give them a space that's truly interesting and not just a stamp out of what
they've done before.”

Inspiration from nature

“In every walk with nature one receives more than he seeks.” —John Muir, “Father of National Parks”

People are often refreshed by taking a walk in a natural setting. A 2006 study showed walking in a pleasant green
space enhanced mood and self-esteem more than walking alone. For creative people, a walk in nature may have a
similarly enhancing effect: in 2014, a study at Stanford University made an explicit connection between walking and
divergent,
creative thinking, showing that participants were better at coming up with odd uses for everyday items
when they were walking than when they were seated.

For many creative people, reliance on the natural setting is so complete as to be hard to articulate. Going outside
allows an artist to see larger patterns like the ordered golden-mean geometry of the sea shell or the chaotic
stippling of light through the leaves of an oak tree. Sometimes these natural patterns have a direct influence on
the work being done, and sometimes they are merely fuel for the subconscious mind.

“…I find inspiration through nature. Nature decomposes what it is not using or what is alive. On the
opposite
end we have humans who keep clutter and cannot find peace within our own homes. We keep so much clutter
around
us and forget to discard items that are of no value to us. Nature does not keep clutter. We can use the
simplicity of nature as inspiration for our homes and design work. Imagine vastness, feel smooth lines,
touch
wood, include an array of textures. Clutter is chaos, natural is peaceful and inspirational.”

Inspiration from clients

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”
—Edward
de Bono, author of Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step

Looking at an issue from a different perspective allows us to try something new.

The biggest source of this perspective shift can be from clients themselves. Finding this inspiration from clients
is a deliberate process, because it is easy to get comfortable in our areas of expertise. We likely have seen a
problem before, and experience can make us jump right to what we suspect is the correct solution. If we put
expertise aside for a moment and meet clients with curiosity and adaptability, we have the opportunity to co-create
something new. This approach requires taking time to listen and ask many questions without assuming we understand
everything about the client’s motivation. It also requires we not jump in with standard solutions. Of course,
expertise and experience will inform the solution—it is this skill the client is paying for—but if curiosity and a
willingness to see something new comes first, a designer can spend time teasing out needs, attitudes, and
approaches that might be unique or surprising.

Such great communication can lead to “aha” moments, both large and small.

“When designing the headquarters for a flooring company, we were inspired by the plank effect they had
incorporated into their logo and translated this to a diagonal wood pattern that we used to clad a large
internal volume.

[Once client] wanted to translate the Scandinavian aesthetic of their New York office to something that
would go
well in their new Los Angeles branch, so we looked at mid mod, Eames, the case study houses, and considered
how
to bring that into the space.”

“I draw my inspiration from my remodeling clients. They are placing their money at risk, and gambling that I
will provide them with a solution that not only looks great but which meets their needs as well.

Despite the fact that all homeowners do the same projects (kitchens, bathrooms, additions, etc.), each
design
always has a unique solution. Obviously, their homes differ slightly, but even so, their needs, their
aspirations, and their budgets differ greatly as well. Then there’s the consideration of what they ‘like’
and
what they hope to accomplish on top of it all.

I am always thrilled by solving the 3-D puzzle. But even more, I love delivering a solution that provides
delight in addition to satisfying their fundamental requirements. That remains a joy each and every time it
happens.

What I’ve learned is that such remodeling solutions are rare. Consumers don’t get that kind of care and
effort
in most remodeling situations. So it remains my goal for every remodeling design that I perform, that the
client will walk into that revised space every new day and say ‘damn, I’m glad I did this project.’ Nothing
thrills and inspires me more.”

“I try to understand how my clients want to feel in a given space, what image they want to project and what
needs to be done in that space. I then want them to share any photos or clippings, etc. that they feel look
the
way they are hoping their space to look. We then discuss what appeals to them about those ideas. I love the
challenge of creating a space/structure/landscape that tells their story with my design palette.

It is remarkable how often a calm mind without preconceived notions can allow the surroundings and the
desires
of the clients to generate creative ideas. God wants to bless us in good endeavors.”

Creating the stage for success

“There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.”
- Brene Brown, author of Daring Greatly

There is an idea that creative professionals spend most of their time in the play of ideas. We are captivated by the
idea of yelling “Eureka!” and by image of the visionary bringing something new to the world. Yet these moments of
illumination come to be realized, in most cases, with a lot of patience, work, and dedication. Stumbles and
mis-starts are essential. Repetitive work with attention to detail is often vital to the execution of an idea. The
original creative inspiration is often reworked, through the hours of labor that bring a concept to life, and each
of these workaday moments provide a very different sort of inspiration, one that builds expertise and fluidity.

One practical way to stay inspired for the long term is to look around and appreciate the hours of care that went
into objects, art, and processes already in the world. Even something as often-overlooked as bollards
have a long history and active design!

Reliance Foundry Co. Ltd. delivers the highest-quality stock and custom-designed products for architectural site furnishings, traffic management and industrial applications. Since 1925, Reliance Foundry has built upon a long tradition of metal casting expertise to become an award-winning supplier for high-profile and everyday needs across North America.